To Exercise Or Not To Sit? That Is The Question

Modern-day understanding tells us that we don't move nearly enough- or could it be that we simply sit too much?

In other words, is it the lack of time spent being active or the copious amount of time spent being inactive that’s the issue? It's probably a steady mixture of both, though research over the past six months makes a valid point for lowering our sitting time as much as- if not more- increasing our movement time.

Research in 2013 from Kansas State University realized that people who sit four hours or more every day are at a noticeably greater risk for developing cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Perhaps made all the more interesting was that four hours of sitting wasn't exactly the cutoff for a greater risk each time. That’s because the chance of developing a degenerative disease rose on a consistent curve from six to eight hours- and eight hours and beyond.

This past February, Northwestern University realized that if you're more than 60 years of age, each additional hour spent sitting down raises your risk of becoming disabled two-fold; perhaps shockingly, the researchers also found that any additional exercise had zero effect on the disability risk. This would indicate that it's not necessarily about activity or inactivity, but the total time spent sitting.

Some might say that those who sit all day show poor eating and lifestyle habits, and though this is certainly reasonable to consider for people working night shifts on the road (like truck drivers or police officers), it’s also very characteristic of many occupations that center around the desk, like computer positions. Still, it was identified in the KSU study that the probability of chronic disease stayed high even while lacking dependance of body mass index; this shows that the increased risk is separate from the specific lifestyle habits of the individual, and instead centered around the action (or perhaps inaction) of sitting.

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